Problem Solved: Severed EHL Tendon- 4 Weeks Post-Op

I haven’t been in the greatest of moods lately-involuntarily of course!  No matter how much I attempt at willfully being positive and upbeat, I feel down in the dumps. I’m tired of being holed up inside. I’ve made small attempts at viewing the world from the other side of my front door; they have been frugal at best. My posting should be called “Confessions of a Venting Weakling”. It takes quite a bit of upper body strength to hobble around with the crutches and I complain constantly. So as I venture into slightly longer distances, the pain in my upper and lower back increases. I noticed a weird muscle pull in my left shoulder today. I’m not out to really perfect the art of walking with crutches anyway, so I will ignore.

The Zipperfoot sits propped up patiently as usual. The pain is tolerable, and seems to just escalate slightly in the evening. I've been doing a few small daily/weekly routines to keep the blood pumping.

1.       Toe Flexes: Little sprigs of movement downward.

2.       Excursion: I walk to my mailbox and back- twice in the last week so far. Leg up, very slight pressure on my foot. (with crutches of course!)

3.        Leg lifts: This helps with the movement of my hip flexors, which are desperately screaming for some relief.

4.       Walkabout with Crutches: (not to be confused with Excursion), walking with slight pressure on the casted foot for short distances; say 4-5 meters and back. Olympic style endurance required. It’s an amazing workout!

5.       The nightly scratching down the side of my cast with a wooden skewer.  Heaven. My stick is taken away from me when I start having too much fun or become slightly aggressive.

The small battles I’m still dealing with on a daily basis are the slowness in which I complete my tasks. The simple actions of bathing and breakfast should take no longer than 30 minutes tops. I’m booking it at 90 minutes. So really by the time I’ve finished bathing, dressing and having breakfast, it’s time for elevenses.

 I still have to 2 crutch it everywhere, so I have a small saddle bag which I use to transport a book, my glasses and my cell phone which are with me constantly. Anything heavier than that and I teeter favourably to the wrong side, whichever side that may be.  I’ve instructed my family to disregard the flailing being they may be noticing in the corner of their eye. Call 911 if unconscious.

It’s sort of funny/insane; however I’ve had to reschedule friends’ visits because I’ve said I don’t have time.  I guess the truth is I have a routine, as bizarre as it seems. There is some weird structure that I’ve adapted to, not sure what it consists of but it fills my time.

 I do somewhat sense that mainstream mentality of schedules and time sharing has crept back in, anonymously without me even knowing it was there.  I thought I was supposed to be cured of this.